Harper History Highlights

In July 1994 Beverly Jenkins’ Night Song launched the modern African-American historical romance novel.

It took Jenkins thirteen years to finish writing her first novel, and finding a publisher proved difficult."Publishers didn't believe there was a market,"

Jenkins remembered in People. "Like advertisers, they believed black people didn't have the money to buy these things."

After four years of trying to get her book published, Jenkins finally hooked up with Avon Books in 1994. Avon recognized the potential of her first novel and printed 78,000 copies. Night Song proved a tremendous success, became a Waldenbooks best seller for the year and was also chosen as an alternate book of the month by the Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild. Called "totally captivating" by a reviewer in Affaire de Coeur, Night Song was one of the first romance novels to display black characters on its cover. When the book was signed, Jenkins even got involved in the search for a model for the cover, tracking down someone she had seen in Essence magazine.

Source: Contemporary Authors

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Where the Sidewalk Ends, published in 1974 is a collection of children's poetry written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. The book earned Silverstein favorable comparisons to Dr. Seuss and Edward Lear. The book contains such favorites as "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout / Would Not Take the Garbage Out," "Dreadful," and "Band-Aids." The collection and its 1981 successor,A Light in the Attic, continue to be popular with both children and adults. Shel Silverstein dedicated this book to Ursula Nordstrom, the famed Director of the Harper Junior Books Department, who after an introduction by Tomi Ungerer, convinced Silverstein he was capable of writing children's books. In addition, to the two above books, other bestsellers by Silverstein include The Giving Tree, Lafcadio, Falling Up, and Runny Babbit. ​

Jacques Barzun

Jacques Barzun was born in France in 1907, and came to New York in 1920 to study at Columbia University. He stayed there as an instructor in western civilization, from 1929 to 1975. He also served as history consultant to Life magazine and as a critic for Harper’s. His articles appeared in Life magazine and The Saturday Evening Post as well as The Atlantic, The Nation and The New Republic. He wrote over 30 books across many decades. He published his most ambitious and encyclopedic book at the age of 92 -“From Dawn to Decadence,” an 877-page survey of 500 years of Western culture in which he argued that Western civilization itself had entered a period of decline. It went on to become a New York Times Bestseller. He also received the Gold Medal for Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he was twice president. Jacques Barzun passed away on October 25, 2012 at the age of 104.

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